News:

Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.Classified ads are not allowed on the forum.

While searching the Getty Images website I found some interesting pictures of a 1967 Camaro hardtop show car I had never seen before. This particular Camaro was parked next to the Cherokee Camaro convertible show car and in front of a Z28 at the New York Auto Show in April 1967. In the first picture you can see several unique show car items on the car including a hood that looks similar to the one on the Cherokee, aftermarket wheels with different size tires front and back, wrap around nose stripe and the lack of a front bumper. In the second picture you can see the rear end of the show car to the left of the Cherokee (convertible) and in front of the Z28 with aftermarket wheels. I zoomed in on this picture and while some of the letters are obscured by the rope pole, the rear license plate on the show car says "CALIFORNIAN."

Does anyone have any information on this show car. Did it appear in any period magazines? I did a search on this forum and it was only mentioned in one thread, and then only by name. I did a quick search of all my Camaro reference materials and did not find anything.

Here it is punched up the best I could... Looks like CHEVROBOSS or something similar... CHERRIOS?.. .. . Danny

Thanks, but that is the license plate for the Cherokee show car (convertible on the left) and it says "Camaro cherokee" . I'm talking about the hardtop on the left. That is the same car as the car in the first picture. The rear license plate says "CALIFORNIAN"

Dam, I just can't get it right to read it. Could be CHEROLIASS?? Somebody is just going to chime right in with the right answer tom. So I will leave it at that... Danny

Thanks for your efforts, but that is the license plate for the Cherokee show car (convertible on the left) and it says "Camaro cherokee" . I'm talking about the hardtop on the left. That is the same car as the car in the first picture. The rear license plate on the hardtop says "CALIFORNIAN" I zoomed in on the picture after I downloaded it and that's what it says.

Very interesting. Th Californian car and the others look like they got some serious polishing and most likely a wet sand. I have never seen pictures of any new Camaros from back in the day with that munch depth and shine in the paint. Also check out the lower front valence panel, it has much smaller/ narrower cut out than the stock model. Also the ride height on the cars seems quite high. Look at the gap between the tires and the top of the wheel well opening. Since they were car show cars, I wonder how real they were and what mods that had. I am wondering if they were even actual drivers or strictly display?

Very interesting. Th Californian car and the others look like they got some serious polishing and most likely a wet sand. I have never seen pictures of any new Camaros from back in the day with that munch depth and shine in the paint. Also check out the lower front valence panel, it has much smaller/ narrower cut out than the stock model. Also the ride height on the cars seems quite high. Look at the gap between the tires and the top of the wheel well opening. Since they were car show cars, I wonder how real they were and what mods that had. I am wondering if they were even actual drivers or strictly display?

Good points. The Cherokee convertible was and still is a running "normal" vehicle. It was used later in 1967 to pace the Can Am races at Road America and Mosport and it has just been completely restored, so it is likely that the Californian Camaro was also a running/driving show vehicle.

Most Chevrolet show cars and displays of that era were made and/or finished at the Chevrolet Show & Display Facility in Flint; we did a lot of their final Show Paint work at the Chevrolet Pilot Line building on Van Slyke Road (where the first 300 Corvettes were built in 1953, bulldozed in 2003).

The Cherokee's VIN is 124677N233228 and according to the cowl tag has an 06B build. The car was for sale at Russo & Steele in Jan. 2012. How could of it then have been at the April '67 auto show? Or were these pictures from the 1968 show?

Was the Cherokee built by GM, or by someone else? Story's seem to indicate it was just pulled off the assembly line and sent to the GM design center but its cowl tag indicates it was originally a white car with a white convertible top.

If GM was making it wouldn't they have started with a red, white topped car (even though its not really a standard GM red now)? Or did they just grab some guys Camaro off the line and hijack it to the design center for modifications.

Story also says it has an L78 in it, but the tag clearly indicated it was built as an L35, so if it really had an L78 it must have got that at the design center as well.

The Cherokee's VIN is 124677N233228 and according to the cowl tag has an 06B build. The car was for sale at Russo & Steele in Jan. 2012. How could of it then have been at the April '67 auto show? Or were these pictures from the 1968 show?

It's the 1967 Auto Show, the Z28 seen in the pictures has the '67 front end as well as no side marker lights. If it did have an 06B build then maybe this picture proves that there actually were two of these show cars built?

All the information I and several others have been able to gather is that there were at least two of these Cherokee convertible show cars built in 1967. One of them (the one in the picture in the first post of this thread as well as in the Sept 1967 edition of Hot Rod Magazine) had a white nose/side stripe, a red interior, vette like turbine wheels and no tach on the hood. The other one (the one that has just been restored and is documented in pictures pacing the 1967 Road America Can Am and the 1967 Mosport Can Am) does not have a nose/side stripe, has a black interior, had different wheels in 1967, and has a tachometer on the hood. Since the one that still exists shows a build date of June 1967 it could not possibly be the one in the above picture taken in April of 1967 at the New York Auto Show. I believe this picture proves that at least two Cherokee Camaro convertibles were built.

Anyone have info on the Californian Camaro? I have never seen any other pictures or read anything about this show car. Somebody must know something about it...